


Hollow Throne

by SiriuslyOrion



Category: Bleach
Genre: Adjuchas, Cannibalism, Espada, Evolution, Gen, Hueco Mundo, Menos Grande, Monarchy, Vasto Lorde, War, soul society - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-10-25 01:42:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17715674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SiriuslyOrion/pseuds/SiriuslyOrion
Summary: Hueco Mundo is an empty, desolate place brimming with fear and cannibalism. For centuries hollows everywhere have been waiting for someone to rise up and take the desperately needed position of king. Many have tried and all have failed, either thrown down by those who followed them or destroyed by those who oppose them. Now, there is someone who will try to take the throne again. There are those who will follow him out of loyalty, out of fear, out of an instinctual want for protection, and there are those who will oppose him, some who fancy themselves in his position and some out of shear spite.All he wants is to make a better world for his kind, make their lives worth something, make them more than creatures of suffering who live in constant fear of death, whether by hand of their own kind or by their natural enemies. He will do whatever it takes to survive and gather the strong so that together, they may change the very nature and the innate meaning of their existence.





	1. Hungry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Hollow is born and is hungry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for clicking this story, I'm sure that if you're into Hollows, Arrancar, and lore, I'm sure you'll love this story. Also, to anybody coming from any of my other stories, sorry for starting another new story, I just got the urge to write this and came out with this chapter rather quickly. This whole story has been stewing in my mind for years, and it feels good to get it out there.
> 
> Enjoy!

**Chapter 1: Hungry**

It was cold, so very cold, and painful, so very painful too. Why was it like this? Why was he feeling this way? Or was he hot? Was he actually too hot? He couldn’t tell, everything just hurt way too much for him to tell. He tried to look around, maybe see if he was too hot or too cold, but no matter how wide he opened his eyes, no matter how much he strained them, he couldn’t see anything beyond a complete and utter darkness. No, he was wrong, there was a slit of light coming slowly towards him. Then another one right beside it. He tried to reach out to the slits of light, moving ever closer and closer, but he couldn’t feel any part of him at all. No, he was in pain, right? Yes, that was definitely pain, but it began to dull the closer those lights got to him. He supposed he’d just have to wait for them to approach, after all, he had no urge to get away from this pain, the usual instinct to flee from it gone from his mind.

It felt like an eternity before the lights were right before him, or it could have been but a moment, he really couldn’t tell. In any case, they were right there and the pain that he couldn’t tell whether was hot or cold was gone.

Now that the lights were there, he could feel the edges of his body, he could feel something course and rough sticking into his back, he could feel the tips of his fingers and toes. They were warm somehow. Now he could look through the light, right into the world. It was then that he realised that these weren’t just slits of light in front of him, these were his own eyes, they had just taken their time to open up. Or maybe it was just a blink? What had he been feeling before now, before he opened his eyes? Had he been in pain, he couldn’t quite recall.

None of that mattered now anyway, not when he was so hungry.

He stood, opening his eyes completely, trying and failing to force himself to his feet. Whenever he thought he’d gotten his bearings he just collapsed to the ground again. He decided that standing wasn’t worth it right now and decided to crawl. Where to? He had no idea, he just knew he needed to move, he needed to find food.

The ground in front of him was so derelict, so dusty and grey. He didn’t realise until now, but his vision was blurry, so very blurry and indistinct. He sat back on his haunches, brought his hands to his face and tried to rub his eyes, only there was something in the way, something hard and thick that he could feel, something that was part of him. It ended up not being an issue however, since his vision soon cleared up.

What he saw before him should’ve been more surprising, but it wasn’t, it was just a vast, silvery desert, with nothing but a horizon and sand. He knew he wouldn’t get any food here, so he kept crawling, eventually finding the strength to properly walk. Now he was covering some actual distance. At least, he thought he was, the horizon seemed to go on infinitely. The only thing that seemed to change was the moon. It was slowly but surely going from crescent, to full, to crescent, to disappearing for a bit, to becoming crescent once more, repeating the process again and again, each cycle fuelling the hunger that raged inside of him.

He didn’t know how, it had taken a few full-moons, but somehow, he knew that if he swung one of his arms out in front of him, putting only a bit of energy into it, something would tear open. He tried, and he was partially correct, something did tear open, but he needed to grab it, grab it and pull. Something black and grey opened that he could walk into, and he did, leaving the desert, the horizon and the moon behind without a second’s thought.

The walk to the end of this empty tunnel was wonderfully brief compared to a single moon-cycle, it seemed like no time at all. He knew when he reached the end, that he’d need to tear open his way out. This time he knew, and this time it was so much easier.

Immediately, it was bright, his field of vision was bombarded with blues above and greens all around him, and something wonderfully gold up above where the moon would usually be. For a second, he almost forgot about his hunger.

Almost.

He could smell it, he didn’t know what it was, but he could definitely smell it. It was so close, not even a tenth of a moon-cycle’s walk away from where he was at that very moment. He walked, the gold in the sky disappearing in shades of orange and pink below the horizon, but unlike the silver horizon below the moon, this one got bigger the more he walked.

So close, it was so very close. Whatever he could smell was painfully close to him, so close that he could hardly stand it. He was running now, his hunger making him feel as empty as the desert, his mouth as dry as the sand and his eyes as sharp as the point of the crescent moon!

Then it was there, right in front of him, so small and pale, with something as dully-coloured as the sand sticking out of its chest. He knew what this was, somehow, he just couldn’t think of the name of it. This thing tried to run from him, but he couldn’t let that happen, of course he couldn’t, not when he was so **_hungry_**.

He grabbed the human, yes, human was the correct word, in his hand, it struggled and beat at his fingers with its own fists. It was no use at all, it was so small compared to him, its entire body only slightly longer than the width of his palm.

He lifted the human up over his head and, for the first time in a very long time, opened his mouth. He opened his mouth wide and broad, his black tongue sticking out for the human to slide down. It screamed as he closed his mouth again, silenced with his chews and was no more when he gulped. It felt wonderful, for the first time he could remember, his hunger was sated, for the first time he wasn’t getting hungrier.

Something on the ground caught his eye. It was that sand-coloured thing that had been sticking out of the human’s chest, part of it had broken off when he’d bitten down. He picked it up and held it close to his eye, only he didn’t use his hand to do it. All he needed to do was want it to get closer to him, and it did. It hovered right in front of his eyes, shrinking. Piece by piece it got smaller, little mouths from this chain eating itself. Yes, chain was the right word for this. He dropped it, not caring about it anymore when he smelled more humans nearby.

They weren’t far at all, he needed only walk for a moment and they were there, these ones with no chains sticking out from them, gathered around a blazing fire, chanting and yelling at the flames. None of them seemed to notice when he strolled towards them, at least not until he picked up a plump one by the head. Its pained yells alerted the others and they began screaming, some running at him, into him, bouncing off his body. It was almost as if they couldn’t see him. He didn’t pay them much mind, they’d all get their turns in his mouth.

This plump one exploded when he chewed it, its blood splashing around his mouth. It was such a satisfying sensation, this chainless one tasted so much better than the one with a chain. He grabbed another two humans, one in each hand, and swallowed them too. At this point the rest seemed to realise that he was to be feared and backed away. Some of the larger ones were holding sharply pointed spears, yelling for the others to retreat while they threw their weapons at him. They bounced off his skin, doing practically nothing. Still, they were getting in the way of his eating.

Like he did with the chain, he picked up the spears by only thinking about it, but he could tell it was only the tips of the spears he was picking up, the shiny parts that glistened in the flames. With a thought he sent the pointed tips back to the ones who threw them, keeping them in place for when he wanted them.

He ate more and more, they seemed adamant to keep coming at him, poking him with more pointy things and throwing other hard things at him. Anything that was shiny he sent away with a thought, anything that wasn’t shiny didn’t even phase him.

When he was out of humans coming to him, he turned his attention to all the ones he had pinned to keep in place, only now they smelled different from before, now they smelled like the one with the chain. In fact, many of them now had chains coming from them, some from the stomach, others from the chest, one from the eye. Still, they satisfied his hunger as they went down his throat, only they didn’t splash with blood.

Before long, there were no more humans to eat. Still, he’d managed to eat a few dozen, he’d lost count after a while. Now his hunger was properly satisfied, now he didn’t have the urge to keep walking. So, he sat, he sat as the roaring flames died down, as the sky darkened completely and lightened again, and then darkened again before lighting once more. It seemed that no matter where he went the sky was always going through cycles.

After walking some more and finding more humans to sate his slowly growing hunger, he tore open another hole in the air, walking until he needed to tear open another hole and like that, he was back in the desert.

He walked for a few more moon cycles and didn’t stop until he felt something strange, something familiar yet completely foreign at the same time. He saw something walking towards him, something that wasn’t at all human, something that was his size, something whose existence he could feel much more than a human’s, and it seemed to sense him too.

They got closer and closer to each other until he could make out the features of this creature, this Hollow. Yes! Another word he remembered. He, and this being approaching him, was a Hollow. But was this Hollow a friend, or was it a foe?

This Hollow didn’t seem to want to attack him, it merely approached him, walking around on four clawed legs. Its white mask had a long, fanged snout and three yellow eyes to peer at him with. It also had three tails trailing behind to sway and swing.

It roared at him, sending sand up in a cloud. He was taken by surprise when the other Hollow leapt at him with a roar from the cloud, sinking its teeth into his arm. It hurt, but it was nothing compared to the hunger he once felt. He wrapped his pointed fingers around the Hollow’s neck and pulled it off, its four sets of claws trying to scratch his thick skin. Instinctually he held out a single finger, and from that finger sent a thin, white and blue light at the Hollow, and the second it connected the Hollow howled in pain and writhed, thrashed and trembled. He only stopped torturing it when it was lying in the sand, barely moving. He jumped on it, sinking his teeth into its neck and tearing out a chunk. It tasted nowhere near as nice as an unchained human, but it was filling, as if there were a dozen humans packed into a single, tasteless package.

He devoured the entire thing, feeling quite full but with a bad taste in his mouth. Still, there were probably many more hollows out there, ones that would satiate his hunger in between the trips to the human world.

For many moon cycles, that was how he lived, journeying to the human world, devouring a group of the tasty things, coming back home and feasting on another Hollow or two. Everything was great, he was never too hungry, and it seemed that nobody could get in his way, not a Hollow and especially not a human.

This was the day that notion of absolute invincibility was to be shattered.

It was an unextraordinary day for the most part, the humans were delicious, and it had been raining, a phenomenon where droplets of water fell from the sky in the human world. He found it very intriguing and would often sit there for many cycles of the sky while it fell on him. He’d often be so quiet and still that the lesser creatures that occupied the human world, the ones he had no desire to eat, would come to him as if he were just another tree. The birds sat on him and the ones that scurried on the ground took shelter from the gale winds by hiding behind him.

“There you are, scum!”

A voice had yelled at him. He turned his head to look for the source. It was another human, only this one had a very different scent than the chained and unchained humans he was familiar with. This one smelled…powerful? Delicious? He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, the only thing he knew for certain was that this human, clad in black and aiming a blade at him, needed to be in his mouth.

Not thinking much of this human, he stood and walked over to it. It didn’t move away, despite looking him directly in the eye. Odd, he was so much bigger, and thus so much stronger than this creature. If it could see him it should at least try to flee, the others who acted like they couldn’t see him often fled after seeing what he did to their kin.

He raised his hand and slammed it down on the human, cracking the hard ground beneath. He raised his hand again, expecting to find stains of red splattered on his palm, only there was nothing there, only the fissures in the rock.

He felt something sharp slice into his back. Turning quickly, he saw that this human was behind him, its blade reddened by his own blood. He narrowed his eyes, and for the first time in his life, he was excited, he wanted to fight this human, who with one move had intrigued him more than any Hollow ever had. The feeling, the energy that emanated from this human was almost at a level with his own, so much so that he doubted that this human was human at all.

Wait, there was a word for this, a word that once existed in the mind of one of the many hollows he devoured.

“ ** _Shinigami!_** ” He growled, the first word he could remember speaking aloud.

It seemed startled to hear its title be spoken by him. Good, that gave him the opportunity to dash forward, his white, sparking light enveloping his hand as he smashed his fist into the Shinigami, sending it flying back, crashing into and smashing many trees.

A feeling of disappointment washed over him, he thought that the Shinigami would be able to put up a good fight, yet there it was, slumped down, defeated, its front seared by his power. He stalked towards it, seeing that it had some life left in it as it coughed up blood. That was a consolation at least, an unchained meal was always more satisfying than a chained one. It cried out for mercy as he swallowed it, just as others had done. He never gave it, why should he? They were his meals, they staved away his hunger, they couldn’t compare to his might, no more than the other Hollows could. They should earn his mercy if they want it so bad.

That Shinigami was the best thing he had ever tasted in all the cycles he had existed. The energy it filled him with, the power that surged through him as it slid down his throat. It was orgasmic, so much so that he couldn’t help but let out a long, drawn-out, victorious roar!

Then he sensed more of them, more Shinigami were coming. For the first time, he felt glee, pure excitement and anticipation for what was to come. One mere Shinigami couldn’t stand up to him, but maybe the four, five, six, that were coming would be able to. He grinned when they surrounded him, blades of their own drawn, one of them holding a spear with a long, sharp looking tip.

One of them yelled out, two dashed at him, but he grabbed one in each hand and burned them with his sparking-white light. As he tossed the right one into his mouth, he could feel the one with the spear behind him, just mere inches away from skewering his neck. He did something new, he used his light from his back, sending a broad wave of it out to throw the Shinigami off. By the yell he heard he could tell that it worked, though the spear had drawn a bit of blood. It wasn’t an issue, the wound closed quickly as the energy from his third Shinigami cascaded through him.

The ones with the regular blades didn’t last long at all, one attack with his light had them dead to rights, but the one with the spear was a different creature altogether, it bounced back and weaved through his attacks, even when all of its comrades were either in his stomach or on the ground. It even managed to scratch his face when it threw its weapon, but he was largely unharmed. He found that he was able to lift all six of the fallen Shinigami’s blades just by thinking about it. They were effective, managing to scratch and wound the spear-wielder when it dodged his light.

The fight was pretty much over when he caught the spear-wielder by the leg and knocked its weapon away. It started to chant something and aimed its hand at him. A dim yellow light surrounded its arm, but he wasn’t interested in that right now, so he swallowed the Shinigami in one bite. The energy it gave him was worth more than all the rest of the Shinigami put together, worth more than dozens of humans and Hollows. This must’ve been what ecstasy felt like.

Now he knew though, there were beings out there that could challenge him, that could maybe kill him. The thought made him laugh, not out of arrogance or conceit, but out of excitement! A challenge was what he needed to add something to this existence of killing and eating.

He hoped he’d meet another Shinigami sooner rather than later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, please leave a comment or a kudos, let me know there's real interest in this story and I'll be more likely to get next chapter out quicker!


	2. Feared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hollow evolves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, LArtoriusCastius for bookmarking this story, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 2: Feared**

He quickly became feared. Hollows all around Hueco Mundo had learned of the fearsome “Striker”, grey and fast and would devour you on site. Even Shinigami learned to become weary of him, ever since he killed and ate one of the ones they call a “Third-Seat”, one of their senior officers. The only ones who lived after encountering him were the ones who grovelled, and even then it depended on his mood.

It was no surprise when he evolved into a Gillian, colossal, black and mindless, but with a unique, fanged mask that pegged him for further evolution. He devoured other lesser Menos at a rapid rate, so fast that many feared the day he would become an Adjuchas would be fast upon them. One of the precious few who were as feared as the Striker was Barragan Luisenbarn, an uncommonly powerful, skeletal Adjuchas who rot everything he touched, and he sought to end the Striker when he was in this weakened state, less competition for the title of King.

He was stopped, of course. There were a precious few who would welcome the evolution of the Striker, declare themselves loyal to him and live within the protection of his shadow. That’s what he himself wanted, that’s why he was there, in front of the Striker, prepared to fend off the impending onslaught of Hollows coming their way. He wasn’t particularly big, or extraordinarily strong, but Ecnne was fast, and his cero did more than just burn. He could sense the other Adjuchas coming, so he and the others readied themselves.

The first wave of Gillians came, rushing and roaring, their red cero blasts firing only vaguely in their direction. Ecnne dispatched one of the shorter ones by himself as his larger allies dealt deadly blows to the remaining. It wasn’t long before they came face to face with actual Adjuchas, far stronger and much deadlier than the Gillians, for they had all survived the evolution and made it to this point.

Ecnne bit into and consumed others when he could, anything was fair game when it came to staving off the de-evolution back to Gillian, it was something all Adjuchas lived with until one of three things happened; they died, part of them was consumed, or most unlikely, they evolved to the final stage of hollow evolution and became a Vasto Lorde, a being of pure power who could face an army of hollows and Shinigami alike and come out on top.

There was only one known Vasto Lorde in all of Hueco Mundo, the Unknown who lived far away, whose presence was ever-felt and ever-feared. In fact, it was so unknown that it wasn’t even confirmed to be a Vasto Lorde, it was just assumed due to its immense power. Those who got too close, even seasoned Adjuchas, quickly died due to the immensity of its power. This being was so powerful, and so old, that it was often wondered why it never made a bid for kingship. Many reckoned it already had, and the reason nobody survived a venture to it was because it already founded a decade of Espada and was ruling over its own little haven of Hueco Mundo. That was only pure conjecture, it was said that every Hollow in existence would feel it if a true king was declared and the Espada chosen. Others thought that the Unknown was the king of a dynasty long passed, well before even the Shinigami as they were now existed.

Ecnne didn’t falter as some of his companions were taken down, their side dealt blows much more lethal. They managed to fend of Barragan’s soldiers for now, but they were nought but fodder compared to the ones yet to join the fray. Ecnne perched himself on the Striker’s shoulder, a safe spot from which he could direct him should things get too messy. As an Adjuchas he had dominion over the Gillian despite the explicit difference in their power, it was just how nature worked. He hoped that when the Striker finally did evolve, he would remember what Ecnne did and let him live in his shadow.

He could sense more coming, the others did too and readied themselves for another round of battle. Ecnne could only imagine how furious Barragan was becoming. To have his forces repelled so thoroughly, all for the sake of a Gillian, was humiliating to say the least. It was his own fault, Ecnne thought, for being so ruthless and unforgiving. Hollows everywhere were hoping for another contender to arise, to displace Barragan, or at least dull his influence. It was well known that Barragan sought to go to war with the Shinigami, to end them for seeing Hollowkind as an inferior. Sure, Ecnne was no fan of the Shinigami, no sane Hollow was, but to declare war on them was suicide, not just for him, but for Hollows everywhere. After evolving and becoming Menos, Hollows had little need to go to the Living World. Their time was much better spent in Hueco Mundo, devouring others to stave off regression or to evolve further. A single human soul, while delicious, would do nothing to help either of those causes.

When the first large, green Adjuchas burst out from a thickness of silvery branches, Ecnne ordered the Striker to fire a cero at him. He expected a blast of red to fire and was shocked when he charged up a ball of white-blue light in front of his unique mask. It discharged faster than any cero he had seen an Adjuchas fire off, and it burned so intensely and so brightly that Ecnne had to look away. The only thing left of that Hollow were his feet and the top of his mask, the only things that weren’t caught in the beam.

With this new weapon at their disposal, the Striker’s forces fended of Barragan’s soldiers at an alarming rate, taking fewer casualties and dealing more fatal blows. One lanky red Adjuchas was trying to crawl away, its legs having been cut off by a smaller Adjuchas with curved blades for arms. A finishing blow was about to be dealt to him before Ecnne yelled to stop, a better idea coming to mind.

“Feed him to the Striker!” He declared, a rally of cheers erupting. A Gillian eating an Adjuchas was not unheard of, but generally they were too slow and too mindless to hope to catch up to even the meekest of them. It was basic logic, Gillians evolved by consuming other Gillians, so wouldn’t consuming an Adjuchas, who was just dozens, if not hundreds, of Gillians speed up the evolution process? Ecnne reckoned it would. The sooner the Striker evolved the sooner Barragan would be challenged further, a fourth warlord to balance out the scales.

Barragan was too malicious to be a king, Ecnne thought, and the Unknown was just that, unknown, any bid it would have made would have been made decades ago. Marrkievikz Cifer was another contemporary, the only one really keeping Barragan from truly ruling, but being female meant that many Hollows looked down on her for that very fact. Ecnne would’ve easily rallied to her had she a stronger army, but aside from herself and a handful of exceptional subordinates her army was unimpressive. Barragan’s military still had numbers and a stronger core. He knew of Charlotte Chuhlhourne, Ggio Vega and Findor Carias to be three of the most feared in Barragan’s ranks, Adjuchas the likes of Ecnne could never hope to beat.

The battle continued on, increasingly in their favour, more and more Adjuchas were being fed to the Striker, and Ecnne could feel his power swelling the longer this went on. Good, perhaps his evolution was closer than they thought it would be.

After a few hours of silence, everyone felt it, a sudden and unyielding pressure bore down on all of them.

“No!” Ecnne declared, knowing that Barragan Luisenbarn was tired of having his army decimated and was now joining the battle himself. “Retreat!” He shouted to the others. They remaining Adjuchas all packed together and ran in a stampede with the Striker in the middle. They sent a wave of their own Gillian back to act as a shield. From his perch Ecnne could see them get cut down and rotted to nothing, purple and black mist dissolving them to less than dust, their white masks crumbling and their black cloaks fluttering to wisps.

From all the carnage, he stepped out, Barragan Luisenbarn, the self-proclaimed King of Hueco Mundo. He was at least ten meters tall, his skin a deep purple with clothes of tattered black swaying around him, his mask bearing a striking resemblance to a human skull with jagged edges jutting from the scalp, giving his head the appearance of wearing a crown.

He opened his mouth wide, an orb of crimson and purple forming before it. Ecnne ordered the Striker to turn and fire his own. Many Adjuchas decided to add theirs into the mix, most of them a plain red. The opposing beams collided, a brief power struggle ensued before a massive explosion engulfed the distance between them and Barragan.

Four figures dashed out of the dust cloud with jarring speed. He recognised three of them from descriptions he heard; Charlotte Chuhlhourne, a small, pink and white Adjuchas who was known to drain the vitality from their opponents, their looks extremely deceiving as they were also known to be formidable at hand-to-hand combat. Ggio Vega; another deceivingly small Adjuchas. He had a feline look to him, a slim body, a fanged mask and blades emerging from his arms. He was known to be exceptionally fast. Findor Carias was larger, his arms massive claws, a shell on his back that was said to be near unbreakable and rumoured to become more powerful the longer a battle is drawn out. The last one Ecnne didn’t recognise, but he was massive, lugging along with gigantic strides, the ground shaking and the bare, silvery trees around them crumbling as he waded by.

“Shit!” Ecnne cursed, once again commanding the striker to turn and flee. The others threw their ceros and balas at Barragan’s commanders but they were either avoided or bounced off. Ecnne knew that this was their last chance, so he ordered the Striker to begin consuming the Adjuchas who were running by their side.

“Die in the Striker’s stomach or be torn apart by Barragan’s army!” He declared, hoping to get as many Adjuchas into the Striker as possible. Some screamed as they were consumed, others let themselves be taken.

Suddenly, the Striker let out an unyielding yell, and a pressure that almost matched Barragan’s flooded the area. Ecnne darted away, his idea a success. The black cloak dissolved under the pressure, the Gillian’s vile skeleton glowing a magnificent bright blue. The Striker curled in on himself, a pillar of bright light breaking the canopy of silver branched above them. The light was so bright and the pressure was so intense that Ecnne couldn’t help but be awed.

The light died down, the pressure alleviated, Ecnne could look again. There, where a Gillian once stood, now crouched a smaller figure, grey and white on its body, a mane of white and black hair emerging from the base of its horned mask, its Hollow hole hollowing out its gut. The Striker stood, showing himself to be no more than eight meters in height, his clawed fingers flexing and flickering with sparks.

“For Lord Barragan!” Ggio Vega yelled, zipping at a blinding speed towards the Striker. He didn’t even need to look, his fist moved faster than a bolt of lightning, crashing down onto Ggio mid-air and planting him into the ground.

“Be quiet.” The Striker grumbled, his voice deep and sonorous, yet soft at the same time. He looked down at Ggio, who was struggling to get up. “You can be my first meal as an Adjuchas.” He said reaching down to pick him up. He was interrupted when Chuhlhourne darted in, kicking away the Striker’s hand, grabbing Ggio and darting to their comrades’ side. It was then that Barragan walked up, his followers parting and bowing as he did so, Ggio needing Chuhlhourne’s support.

“So, you’re the Striker?” Barragan’s monstrous voice asked, striking the fear of god into Ecnne’s hollow heart.

“Is that what everyone calls me?” He asked, facing Barragan directly. “My name is Abaddon, Abaddon Astraeus, and you are my next meal.”

Barragan laughed a high and mirth-filled laugh, clearly the idea of him being consumed by anybody was laughable in its own right.

“A measly peon like you would never be able to even touch me, let alone ever take a bite out of me. For such insolence against your king, I will allow you too-”

Barragan’s ramblings were cut off by a flashing bolt, one he barely managed to avoid.

“You speak too much, Barragan Luisenbarn.” Abaddon Astraeus said, disappearing in a blur.

 _“Sonido!”_ Ecnne thought, recognising the high-speed technique.

The gargantuan Adjuchas was sent flying deeper into the forest before anyone could blink, Astraeus standing where the larger had been just an instant before, his arm outstretched, palm facing out.

“How dare you harm our ally!” Chuhlhourne’s shrill voice yelled, their hands forming a heart in front of them, a pink cero charging into life. If fired and Astraeus batted it away as if it were a falling twig. He charged his own cero in turn at the point of a finger, one just as bright and blue as the one he used as a Gillian. Barragan charged his own in turn. The pair clashed, every capable onlooker moving out of the way before they got caught up in the battle.

The explosion of collided ceros far surpassed the one that came before it. Ecnne scaled one of the barren silver trees to keep away from the crossfire, yet he was still close enough to observe the battle. It was quite a sight to behold, Abaddon sparked with blue light, evading and weaving through Barragan’s fatal mist. He was certainly faster than the warlord, but he wouldn’t be able to touch him directly. Abaddon caught onto that fairly quick and started to use only long-range attacks, ceros and bolts of light, but then Barragan started going to him.

The fight lasted hours, days even, neither of the Adjuchas were able to overpower the other, though both had been injured. Barragan had taken more than one bolt to the face and was bleeding from the right eye. Likewise, Abaddon had to sever his left arm after it got caught in the toxic fog. The battle had gone well beyond the bounds of the silver forest of Gillians and was now under the moon of Hueco Mundo.

A few of Barragan’s underlings had tried to intervene on their lord’s behalf but were quickly and ruthlessly killed in the crossfire, both combatants either failing to notice or not caring to notice anybody else.

Ecnne had long ago retreated to a safe distance, yet even now he could feel the tides of battle crashing and colliding, warning every other living thing in Hueco Mundo to stay away. One thing didn’t stay away though, and Ecnne could feel it. Surely Abaddon and Barragan could feel her too, there’s no way they could just ignore her. Marrkievikz Cifer was closing in, and she wasn’t alone. Ecnne needed to get closer and see what would happen.

Marrkievikz Cifer, five metres tall, with her gargantuan, black-as-night, webbed wings trailing behind her approached the ravaged battlefield, a long, blue and white Adjuchas with a blade for a right arm and black-tipped dorsal fins running down her back to her left, and a four legged, brown-bodied Adjuchas whose upper body was akin to that of a human’s, who had massive pointed horns coming from the crown of her mask to her right. Ecnne knew of those Hollows too; Tier Harribel and Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, two Adjuchas who were feared even more than any of Barragan’s subordinates.

Both of them had been considered potential contemporaries of Barragan and Marrkievikz herself, but now that they had apparently joined Cifer’s army, Ecnne had the urge to reconsider his earlier stance. Perhaps she was the safest bet after all with powerhouses like them by her side.

Ecnne sat and concentrated. His body faded and became one with the sand beneath him. When he was like this, he was undetectable, practically invisible unless someone was specifically looking for him. When he was like this his soul could move independent from his body, unable to be hurt yet unable to touch anything at all. To anyone else he’d appear as little more than an apparition, a light breeze to be ignored.

Barragan and Abaddon must’ve sensed the oncoming Hollows as they’d stopped their fighting for the moment.

“What do you want, woman!” Barragan demanded, pointing a skeletal finger at Marrkievikz.

She ignored him and turned her eyeless face to Abaddon. “The Striker, I take it?”

“Abaddon Astraeus, and if you’re here to be my meal then get in line, Bones here has first dibs.” He sneered, grunting as he forced his arm to grow back.

“Insolent child! After I’m done with you, you’ll be less than the sand we walk upon! This world will remember you as nothing but a blip on my reign as king!” He sent his mist to spread at both Abaddon and Marrkievikz and her followers. Abaddon blurred away, yet Marrkievikz didn’t falter. A single beat of her mighty wings sent for a mighty gust that stopped Barragan’s mist in its tracks, infuriating the self-proclaimed king.

“You are no king, Luisenbarn, no more than I am yet queen.” She declared, spreading her wings to their full breadth. They were each almost as long as the Striker when he was a Gillian.

“You think a mere woman has what it takes to rule this world?” He barked, laughing as if it were as funny as the thought of him being eaten. His laughter ceased and was replaced with a yell when a searing burn engulfed his back. He looked and there was Abaddon, already charging another burst of white light.

“Enough!” Marrkievikz yelled, the vastness of her wings charging dozens of dark-green ceros. “No-one here is ready to rule Hueco Mundo for no-one here is yet a Vasto Lorde! All tales of the past say that only a Vasto Lorde can fight for the right to rule!”

“Is that why you’re here, Cifer? To give us a history lesson?” Barragan asked, firing his own cero at Abaddon, who easily used sonido to avoid it. Marrkievikz sent two of her own ceros flying, one at each man. Abaddon avoided it while Barragan caught it with his hand, despite the fact that it seared him.

“No, I’m here to warn you!” The two ceros she fired soon replaced themselves upon the blackness of her wings. “Even to this day, the Unknown is still a complete mystery, something we know nothing about despite our age. For all we know it is waiting for another king to make a bid for the throne, waiting to strike!”

“Nothing but conjecture and hearsay!” Barragan said, narrowly avoiding having his other eye clawed out by Abaddon, who was gone in a blur before Barragan could retaliate.

“We know it’s the most powerful Hollow in Hueco Mundo!” She fired more of her ceros, intersecting Abaddon’s and stopping him from assaulting Barragan further. “The only one who can call themselves the king or queen of Hueco Mundo is _the_ most powerful Hollow, so I hereby challenge the both of you, Barragan Luisenbarn and Abaddon Astraeus!”

They stopped, even Barragan was intrigued by what she had to say.

“Let us see which one of us can make it to Vasto Lorde first and let us see which one of us can bring down the Unknown! Only then will any of us have the right to rule.” She finished, lowering her wings and letting her ceros dissolve. “Only the strong survive in Hueco Mundo, and we can kill each other all we want now, but we are mere Adjuchas, all of it would be for nought.”

Both of them contemplated Marrkievikz’s words. Barragan was the first to respond. It was nothing but a scoff, but he still turned away, dropping his fighting stance and letting his energy waver.

“Fine, Cifer, I’ll accept your challenge, whether you die today or tomorrow makes no difference, my reign will be eternal all the same.”

Abaddon followed suit, turning away and walking in the opposite direction to Barragan. “When I’m king, the first thing I’m going to do is fry you, Luisenbarn, fry you to a crisp.”

Ecnne retreated back to his body, almost giddy with excitement at this turn of events. One way or another, Hueco Mundo was going to have a ruler before long, and all of his bets were on white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a kudos or comment if you did (even if you didn't leave a nasty comment or kudos of frustration)!


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